Briefly, my father was a violent abusive alcohol who I have forgiven for breaking my nose and such. I’ve forgiven my mom for not leaving him. I’ve been taught that it’s *ok* to be an alcoholic because someone will always be there for you…uhm…yeah, that is my f’d up thinking but he is still alive at 83 with my mom now also serving her own house arrest because he needs 24/7 care.

Next, probably due to hanging out with the wrong types cause of low self-esteem, lost two fiances before I was 25 then set out on a course to be alone in life by again, wanting someone who was emotionally or otherwise unavailable for me….and, well, if you can see where i’m going……the cycle spirals downward and I start sounding like a victim rather than the intelligent, yet bi-polarish, add-y, always recovering alcoholic depressed, panic type personality that I am. (If that sentence didn’t show how scattered I am then let me continue my run on sentences)

As a 911 dispatcher and a despressive person, my first dui was pretty much a few weeks after i took a cops suicide call. I went to a 3 month rehab paid for by my employer. Diagnosed with ADD when I returned, put on medication and this past May went off it because I couldn’t afford it. I do believe I was clinically depressed before that but now, no health insurance. I was told by the courts after I got ARD that if i didnt get another dui for 7 years i would not have to have that first offense charged against me. Three months shy of 10 years sober, going off meds, I was charged with this last dui as a second offender because they changed the laws and there is mandatory minimum sentencing ( I was enroute to the hospital to get help for my mental health and addiction for the 3rd of 7 times in 2 months when I stopped). My BAC was somewhere between .28 and .33 yet I remember every event of that day very clearly. I’ve also been recently diagnosed Diabetic (no surprise there) and was not yet on medication.

So……hours later, after looking for a prison bar picture, I’ve read all everyone had to say, all the links….and here I sit. A criminal. I don’t feel sorry for myself. I know I have consequences to pay. I actually am glad that I got popped for DUI because it finally *FINALLY* got me the help I desperately needed. (Oh yeah….forgot to mention that my mother and I drove to a rehab a week before this and I was turned away)

I just wanted to say that I’m glad there are some people out there working on solutions. Even though I am a mess all by myself…I know I am a good person with some mental issues and am very very scared right now about where my life is headed.

Thanks for listening,
Suzanne K

I will respectfully agree to disagree and hope your efforts are successful moreso than not and risks to you are minimal.

Again, I do not argue against truly mentally impaired patients accessing services in correctional facilities, it is just not for those who are NOT mentally impaired. And I do not view antisocial personality disorder as a mental impairment, but a societal matter that society manages by prisons and cemetaries. DSM has gone too far in allegedly labeling certain disorders giving the misperception they are amenable to interventions.

Just my opinion. My last comment at this posting.

click on the weblink from my earlier post and give it a good read, it will explain to you what I am talking about.

I wouldn’t tire myself out Katrin. It’s not worth it. I think I’ve gotten myself a migraine.

The type, where the repeat offender has a chance to have all his past criminal record erased if he manages to complete the program? Like the program that attempts to change the offender’s ‘criminal thinking’? (and supposedly, the criminal does not need to have an addiction to qualify for this treatment?)

The thing about treatment like this is that it works well, like you say, but what matters here is ‘why’ it works, and that is not such a pretty picture.

1) All the effective ‘treaters’ have to be, or are, ‘criminals’ themselves, or ‘recovering criminals’? and who graduated from such a program themselves, and had their records erased?

2) They are very touch programs that involve severe brainwashing techniques.

3) Now, criminals treating criminals may be a better deal than not, but this treatment is ‘killing’ for those who are misdiagnosed and do not benefit, and become even sicker from it.

4) One reason the success rate is so high is, because of the people who die and commit suicide?

5) The way the law works in those programs is the way the law worked under Bush. There is absolutely zero respect for any law, except the one they secretly observe and without the public’s knowledge. They claim this is in the public’s own interest. They take the law into their own hands. (and understandably, since the other way doesn’t work)

6) They hate psychiatrists and play them like a toy..and successfully.

7) I cannot do this any more, and have to go now.

I hope that some time in the near future experts will be able to come to an agreement on how we should deal with prison inmates who suffer from mental illness. While sociopathy (or antisocial personality disorder) is something most of the prison population suffers from, the remaining deserves attention, understanding, and then most significantly, HELP.

Just a brief correction: antisocial personality disorder is in fact the same as sociopathy or psychopathy. The terms are used interchangeably by some professionals, it can get confusing (but we need to know this tiny detail)! http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antisocial-personality-disorder/ds00829

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-psychopath-means (really good link).

very best

You can read the weblink in my other post its very imformative.

Why do you think Alan Frances wrote what he did in his DSM 4 case studies companion to DSM 4 in the vignette about APD?: he describes a fairly nasty case of a predator in mental health services, and in the review section ends with this comment I try to best paraphrase, “these patients are not amenable to treatment…If this sounds pessimistic, IT WAS MEANT TO BE.” (my bolding of the comment end)

When you accurately identify someone with antisocial personality features, if not florid diagnosis per the DSM criteria, you as a clincian should step back and do some serious soul searching to engage with such patient. These people prey on your caring, empathy, and compassion and will use it against you in a heart beat. I am not advising or condoning abandoning people who are amenable to treatment with disorders that can be impacted for the better, but do not buy the false hype there are interventions for this personality disorder on a whole.

Anyone who says otherwise is most likely clueless or has someone else do the actual treatment while the speaker is behind the safe side of the bars/doors.

Sorry this is a harsh statement, but this is an issue that is one of the nails in the coffin of psychiatry. Forensic Psychiatry is more a blemish to the field than a benefit. If this sounds pessimistic or offends, it was meant to be!

Skillsnotpills, board cert psych MD

An indvidual with a serious and chronic psychiatric diagnosis that whose offending behavior is directly the result of their psychosis needs to treated in a forensic hospital with careful management and release back into the community with strict supervison and for the hardest of cases supported accommodation to monitor their health and behavior and compliance with medication.

Read this link to Canada Corrections for an understanding of the Risk Need Responsivity Model

http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/res/cor/rep/risk_need_200706-eng.aspx